WPP loses a voice of experience in the boardroom

Mr Quelch has served on ten British and American public company boards

CHINAFOTOPRESS/GETTY

David Wighton

Wednesday June 12 2013, 1.01am, The Times

When John Quelch agreed to become a non-executive director of WPP, he thought the job would be interesting. For a bit. He didn’t think it would last 25 years.

Today, finally, at the advertising group’s shareholder meeting in London, Mr Quelch will stand down from the board after one of the longest non-executive stints ever at an FTSE 100 company.

Such longevity for a non-executive is frowned upon by corporate governance purists these days. They say that long-serving board members can get too close to their chief executives, especially if they are as long-serving as Sir Martin Sorrell, who has been in the job for 27 years.

But Mr Quelch, a Harvard Business School professor and a former Dean of London Business School, is unrepentant: